The award-winning filmmaker says his Netflix movie might be his last feature film as he feels it's increasingly difficult to get his films on cinema due to superhero dominance.
- December 21, 2019
AceShowbiz - Martin Scorsese may retire from directing after making "The Irishman" as he fears his films no longer have any place in cinemas.
The movie legend's latest effort, which stars longtime muse Robert De Niro as mob hitman Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran, with Joe Pesci and Al Pacino in supporting roles, was made for Netflix and only had a short run in cinemas despite garnering an array of awards nominations.
While promoting the film, Scorsese made headlines by criticising the dominance of the superhero genre, and now says that comic book movies' hold on cinemas may mean "The Irishman" is his final feature.
"Obviously, we have been discussing this a lot, that theatres have been commandeered by superhero films - you know, just people flying around and banging and crashing, which is fine if you want to see it," he tells The Guardian. "It's just that there's no room for another kind of picture. I don't know how many more I can make - maybe this is it. The last one."
Reiterating his threat to retire, he adds, "I'm not kidding."
"The Goodfellas" director says that many of his most famous films would now struggle to make it into cinemas - as all the screens are showing the same franchise blockbusters.
"Now, you don't have to like the picture, but you couldn't get 'The Aviator' made today," the 77-year-old explains. "You could not get 'Shutter Island' made today, even with me and Leo (DiCaprio).
"The Departed got made despite itself - the star power helped. We realised when we were taking this project around that the doors are closing. So what's going on? I looked over at the theatres right down the block - 10 screens showing the same picture."
"The Irishman" is available on Netflix now.
